Essay on Materialism and Greed in D. H. Lawrence’s Short Story ‘The Rocking-Horse Winner’
Money is one of the most significant fundamental factors that influence social customs; it makes people greedy and corrupt; even worse, it causes family collapse. Due to the background of ‘The Rocking-Horse Winner’, it is the period of Western industrial civilization where materialism is extraordinarily prevalent and money is the symbol of social status.
In the introductory paragraph, Lawrence makes it clear that the story will revolve around money or lack of it. Through the following plot, it is not difficult to find that the Hester family is not poor; they just do not have enough money to appear as luxurious as Hester wishes. Paul’s family belongs to the middle class, but his parents still maintain the taste of upper-class life to keep the social hierarchy with material things. Hester’s reckless spending compared to her husband’s moderate income creates debt for the family. Accompanied by this debt is the constant anxiety about how the family will appear to the neighbors and society. The pressure for money and to maintain a certain status and lifestyle creates greed and tension in the house. Therefore, “the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money!” (Lawrence, 221). The lines of this ‘haunting’ are repeated throughout the story. Although they do not seem to be spoken audibly by family members, the words are felt by the children, the mother, and even Uncle Oscar. It is connoting the family’s constant desire and greed, as well as the fear of falling into the middle class.
As the story goes on, Paul’s desire for approval from his mom also leads to greed. “He said stoutly, ‘I’m a lucky person’, and asserted that ‘God told me’” (Lawrence, 222). Paul recognizes that his mother does not love him but money, so he becomes obsessed with luck, particularly luck that leads to financial gain, proving to Hester that he is lucky and hoping to receive his mother’s love. Paul starts riding his rocking horse until he loses his mind as if it was telling him which horse he should bet on in upcoming horse races. To stop the house from whispering about the family’s endless greed for more money, Paul rides his horse every time before a horse race.
Unfortunately, Paul’s hard-earned money does not lift his mother’s spirits. “As his mother read it, her face hardened and became more expressionless. Then a cold, determined look came on her mouth” (Lawrence, 229). Instead, she wants more. Lawrence demonstrates here that greed can never be satisfied as long as the greed itself is unquenchable; no amount of money will truly satisfy it. Once Hester has the money, “The voices in the house suddenly went mad, like a chorus of frogs on a spring evening. There were certain new furnishings, and Paul had a tutor. He was really going to Eton, his father’s school, in the following Autumn” (Lawrence, 230). Instead of paying off her debts, Hester buys new furniture and takes Paul to Eton, which is one of the most prestigious all-boys boarding schools in the world, representing Hester’s strong vanity and the pursuit of social status.
Judging a family by its appearance is not surprising during the period of Western industrial civilization. Everyone wants to rise in status and power by hook or by crook. Although some people may not have the ability to demonstrate the social hierarchy, they always tend to pretend that. If not, sarcasm and discrimination from other people may be the consequence. Referring to the ‘Gosford Park’, Lady Mabel is mocked for not having a maid. Lady Lavinia says that a woman who travels with no maid has lost her self-respect, and calls her dress an ugly skirt. Moreover, when Mary tells people that she is hired because Constance plans to train her, Elsie says: “She didn’t want to pay for it. You mean”. This illustrates that Constance is not as wealthy as the audience thought, and it can be seen that to maintain her social status, she needs William’s relief. Ostentatious clothing and extravagant spending are just propping that help Constance camouflage her identity.
At the end of ‘The Rocking-Horse Winning’, when Paul died, Uncle Oscar said, “My God, Hester, you’re eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, he’s best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking horse to find a winner” (Lawrence, 235) These lines are the last in the short story. They epitomize the problematic greed that Lawrence criticizes throughout the story. Oscar implies to Hester that she is rich now with a fortune of eighty thousand pounds, and would no longer have to deal with an unfit son. Oscar does not care much about Paul, even though he is his nephew and helps him win thousands of pounds. Oscar just uses Paul as a tool to make money. Also, it is worth mentioning that Lawrence did not even show Hester’s reaction when Paul died. Instead, Lawrence describes how Uncle Oscar compares the worth of the boy’s life to race winnings relentlessly and immediately decides that the money is worth more. This case shows the danger of taking greed and materialism to the extreme. Human life is lost in the pursuit of wealth and luck, and the family is mostly apathetic about it. The lack of communication and intimacy are given evidence at the beginning, in which the children do not speak to each other about the voices, but only share significant eye contact. Hester also shows her materialism in that she buys expensive toys for the children rather than providing them with real intimacy.
In conclusion, greed can never be satisfied as long as the greed itself is unquenchable; no amount of money will truly satisfy it; the lust for money grows stronger as the number of money increases, which is demonstrated in ‘The Rocking-Horse Winner.’ Furthermore, excessive materialism splits love between people, which is demonstrated in Paul and Hester. To satisfy his mother’s desire for money, the pursuit of his mother’s love and luck leads Paul to form a wrong outlook on life, values, and morality. He is willing to sacrifice happiness and life as a child to fulfill the desires of an adult.